Coming face-to-face with a baby woolly mammoth is one of the most incredible experiences you can have. Especially when she’s 40,000-years-old. An iconic animal of the Ice Age, it is hard to look into the eyes of this diminutive mammoth and not feel a connection to these remarkable creatures that once roamed across the lands we now call home.
While your kids may wish that the majestic mammoths still walked across the land, the Royal BC Museum offers the next best thing. In partnership with the Field Museum of Chicago, the Royal BC Museum presents Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. The exhibit, a veritable time machine, allows you and your kids to get up close and personal to these huge, now extinct, creatures from the past.
Royal BC Museum Slide Show
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Taking center stage of the exhibit, for her Canadian debut, is the awe-inspiring baby woolly mammoth Lyuba. And, even with a few wrinkles, we must admit that at only 45 inches-long, Lyuba is the cutest mammoth baby we’ve ever seen. One of the best-preserved specimens in existence, you can see everything from her tiny trunk to the remaining tufts of hair on her body.
If you actually want to touch a mammoth, this unique exhibit is the perfect opportunity. Unlike many exhibitions where touching objects is prohibited, this exhibition has many places areas where visitors are invited to touch to understand what a mastodon tooth feels like or how big a saber-toothed tiger skull is. Game of Thrones fans, take note. The exhibit even includes a Dire wolf skull, allowing you to learn more about the creature made popular by the TV show.
You can also test your skills to see how well you can wield the “tools” mammoths used to survive. Throughout the exhibition there are interactive games such as trying your hand at picking up an object with a trunk, battling another mammoth with your tusks and more. After spending a day in the world of the mammoths, you come away with a new understanding of how these mighty beasts live and how truly massive they were. Unfortunately, these magnificent animals of a bygone area will be going away at the end of the year, so be sure to catch them before they disappear again.
